TC Palm: Written by Isadora Rangel. May 25, 2017.

A reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee to curb discharges could be expedited under a bill Florida lawmakers are pushing in Congress.

The measure gets rid of one step in the approval process for Everglades restoration projects: congressional approval. The Army Corps of Engineers would be allowed to begin work on any ready-to-go project without waiting for lawmakers to pass legislation that's supposed to come up for a vote every two years — but usually doesn't.

Congress still would need to allocate the money.

Waiting for congressional approval in the so-called Water Resources Development Act is one of the big hurdles for restoration. Lawmakers haven't always followed the two-year time frame, passing only three water resources bills between 2001 and 2016.

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